Question about typical idle temps for c2d

[seinat]

I recently built my first system in about 10 years (so long that the last system I built did not require a heat sink for the processor!). I have a c2d 6600 on an EVGA NF680i board with a Zalman 9700 cooler. I think I have the thermal past on a little thick but I'm not sure what a typical idle temp should be for this setup. I'm idling at about 29c with the fan on lowest, and 26c with the fan on highest. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I'm using the past that came with the cooler, which is supposed to be about as good as Arctic Silver according to one review I read.

 

[tool_462]

Idle temps will vary quite a bit due to ambient temps. Those idle temperatures look fine to me, but more importantly...what are you load temps?

 

[sruane]

Perfect! Expect to see temperatures pushing 60C under load.

 

[seinat]

Thanks for the help guys.

I have yet to see the temps above 35c, but I haven't really tried to stress the cpu yet either. I didn't want to yank the cooler if it wasn't necessary.

 

[NotAPimecone]

I have the same Zalman, and a E6400 OC'd to 3.4GHz. My idle temp with the fan on low is usually 33~34C. When I put it under load, I get as high as 53C (only very briefly - most of the time it stays at 51C) with all my cooling at max.

 

[seinat]

I've been checking the temp with the Nvidia software that came with the mb, which shows a consistent idle temp at 26-29c. But I just checked with core temp, which shows each core at 23c, and the Tjunction at 85c, whatever that means.

 

[NotAPimecone]

From what I've heard, TJunction is the temp you should never, ever hit.